Old High Jelbic
Old High Jelbic (OHJ:Awé Er'krnaék Jelbék (IPA: æveɪ ər̩'kr̩næeɪk jəɫbeɪk)) is a Jelbic language and the former native language of Jelbania and was spoken by a sizable proportion of its population. Pontesian and Barmenian dialects were known with subtle lexical variations and grammatical near-uniformity. Old High Jelbic was created during the Nrljogad (Jelbic Enlightenment) in the 23rd century as a result of a language reform aiming to modernize and purify Classical Brmek, the language of culture and the lingua franca of the Jelbosphere. Although largely superseded by its modern derivatives, Jelbék, Pnték, Brmék, and Wrnukaék, it remains the second language of choice in the Jelbic world through its use in formal and ceremonial purposes and academic study. Old High Jelbic replaced its archaic predecessor Classical Brmek as the lingua franca of the Jelbosphere, used to overcome divergence in the modern Jelbic languages through external influences and the intake of loanwords. An agglutinative language, with certain prefixes, suffixes and conjugations creating different meanings of the word, it lacks the system of honorific speech present in others. History The Proto-Jelbic people settled over a wide area of North-Western Majatran, extending from modern Jelbania up to Beitenyu and Pontesi, speaking an early form of the language. This region was an entity of contiguous Proto-Jelbic states until migratory tribes invaded the Vanukuese Ithysmus, separating the Jelbic peoples into two groups. Over time, the language developed into Old High Jelbék and Old High Pnték. These two incarnations of the language were next to mutually intelligible, with minor vocabulary differences due to separate technological and cultural evolutions. The Brmék lexicon later diverged further from the Pnték, largely due to religous influences. Orthography and Phonology The Old High Jelbék language usually uses the Selucian alphabet, with the letters named phonetically. Occasionally it can be transliterated into the Tokundian alphabet sometimes used in modern Jelbék. Jelbék Alphabet The Jelbék Alphabet, derived from cave markings during the initial migration across Majatran, was used for ceremonial purposes, such as names of buildings on signs, names of people for accessories/decorations and titles in formal documents. Although it was used in some printed publications where the Luthorisation of the language was met with xenophobic disdain, this fell out of favour due to the ease with which the Luthori alphabet can be written cursively. The Alphabet is fairly simple in design, monospaced and could be struck into stone with swift chiselling. It has five segments which are believed to relate to how each sound is projected, voiced, affricated or otherwise modified. Whilst theories differ over which segment relates to which, a unilateral consensus is held that the central horizontal segment denotes a vowel. Grammar Main article: Old High Jelbic Grammar The sentence structure of the language is SOV (Subject Object Verb) and uses particles to denote which case nouns in the sentence are in. Particles A variety of particles are used to label certain aspects of the sentence. These can depend on which case the items referred to in the sentence are in, they might be conjunctive, some modify nouns or make lists, whilst others some finish sentences to add assertions or requests. Sentences depend on a topic, either implicit from the context or explicitly stated with a particle. Articles -- a/an and the -- are not used, with plurals also absent. Verbs Two classes of verb exist, with a range of forms. As well as indicating past, present and future, verb forms exist for ongoing states and conditions for which modal verbs would be used in Luthori. Verb negation and continuity can be expressed through conjugation, as well as intransitive, passive, conjunctive, transitional, imperative, causative, volitional, desire, conditional and gerund forms. Adjectives and Adverbs Adjectives and adverbs always precede the noun or verb being modified. They are often derived from nouns and verbs themselves. The ''-srlji'' suffix for nouns gives rise to adjectives, while both classes of verb have adjectival and adverbial forms. Negation relies on the ''-nyr'' suffix. Ordinal and Cardinal Numbers Numbers exist in Ordinal (ordering) and Cardinal (counting) forms, relying on a series of compound nouns to form higher numbers. Counts of objects is done with a suffix added cardinal form. Example Text: Jelbék Prsakijsrlji Lrn "Jelbék Prsakijsrlji Lrn" or the "Jelbanian Purple Stripe" is a nationalist anthem that has been proposed as the national anthem on several occasions. Category:Jelbania Category:Language Category:Jelbic Languages